The 2006–07 English football season was Aston Villa's 15th season in the Premier League. It was Villa's first season under the management of Northern Irishman Martin O'Neill, who was appointed as manager following the sacking of David O'Leary at the end of the previous season.

Villa started life under Martin O'Neill strongly and were the last team in the Premier League to be beaten, going nine matches without defeat and taking points against the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea away before a 3–1 loss at Liverpool. A run of 11 games without victory during the middle of the season dragged Villa down to 14th place, putting paid to their early-season hopes of Champions League qualification, but Villa rallied and only lost 3 of their last 15 games to finish comfortably in 11th.

There were debuts for Ashley Young (210), Stiliyan Petrov (185), John Carew (113), Shaun Maloney (30), Isaiah Osbourne (19), Phil Bardsley (13), Chris Sutton (8), Didier Agathe (5), and Gábor Király (5).

Kit Supplier Sponsor Hummel 32Red.com Boardroom In August 2006, it was confirmed Randy Lerner had reached a £62.6m agreement with Aston Villa to take over the club. The statement to the London Stock Exchange confirmed that 60% of the club's shares, including the 39% stake of Doug Ellis had been sold to Lerner, beating competition from consortia led by Michael Neville, Nicholas Padfield QC, and Athole Still. Eleven days after the announcement, the LSE confirmed that Lerner had secured 59.69% of Villa shares, making him the majority shareholder. Lerner appointed himself Chairman of the Board of the club. The BBC reported in September 2006 that Lerner had moved closer to taking full control of the club, after increasing his share to 85.5%.

By the time that the deadline passed in September 2006, Lerner had secured the acceptance of 89.69% of the shareholders. Due to the acceptance only being 0.31% below the conditional limit, Lerner accepted it and made the bid unconditional. On September 19, 2006, Aston Villa PLC executive chairman Doug Ellis and his board resigned, and were replaced by Randy Lerner as chairman with General Charles C. Krulak, Bob Kain and Michael Martin serving as non-executive directors. At the close of the deal in 2006, Lerner became only the second American owner of a Premiership club. Ellis became a President Emeritus (Life President) of the club.

Premier League

Matches

FA Cup

League Cup

Players Squad at end of season

Goals & appearancss No.Pos.Name LeagueFA CupLeague CupTotal Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals 1 GK Sorensen 29 0 0 0 2 0 31 0 3 DF Samuel 2+2 0 0+1 0 0 0 2+3 0 4 DF Mellberg 38 1 0 0 3 0 41 1 5 DF Laursen 12+2 0 0 0 1 0 13+2 0 6 MD Barry 35 8 1 0 3 1 39 9 8 MF McCann 28+2 1 1 0 2 0 31+2 1 9 FW Angel 18+5 4 1 0 3 3 22+5 7 10 FW Baroš 10+7 1 0+1 1 1+2 0 11+10 2 10 FW Carew 11 3 0 0 0 0 11 3 11 MF Petrov 30 2 1 0 3 0 34 2 12 MF Davis 17+11 0 0 0 3 0 20+11 0 13 GK Taylor 4+2 0 0 0 1 0 5+2 0 14 MF Djemba-Djemba 0+1 0 0 0 0 0 0+1 0 15 FW Agbonlahor 37+1 9 1 0 0 0 41+1 10 16 DF Bouma 23+2 0 1 0 1+1 0 25+3 0 17 FW Young 11+2 2 0 0 0+1 0 11+2 2 17 MF Whittingham 2+1 0 0 0 0+1 0 2+2 0 18 DF Hughes 15+4 0 1 0 3 0 19+4 0 19 DF Ridgewell 19+2 1 1 0 2+1 0 22+3 1 20 FW Sutton 6+2 1 0 0 0+1 0 6+3 1 21 DF Cahill 19+1 1 1 0 0 0 20+1 0 22 FW Moore 7+6 4 0 0 1 0 8+6 4 23 MF Berger 5+8 2 0 0 0+1 0 5+9 2 24 DF Bardsley 13 0 0 0 0 0 13 0 26 MF Gardner 11+2 2 0 0 0 0 11+2 2 27 MF Osbourne 6+5 0 1 0 1 0 8+5 0 28 GK Kiraly 5 0 1 0 0 0 6 0 28 MF Maloney 5+3 1 0 0 0 0 5+3 1 31 DF Agathe 0+5 0 0 0 0+1 0 0+6 0

Loans & transfers Transferred in DatePosPlayerFromFee 30 August 2006 CM Stiliyan Petrov Celtic £6,500,000 12 September 2006 RM Didier Agathe Celtic Free transfer 3 October 2006 CF Chris Sutton Birmingham City Free transfer 22 January 2007 CF John Carew Olympique Lyon £5,000,000 23 January 2007 LW Ashley Young Watford £9,650,000 31 January 2007 AM Shaun Maloney Celtic £1,000,000£22,150,000

Loaned in DatePosPlayerFromLoan End 13 December 2006 GK Gábor Király Crystal Palace 8 January 2007 8 January 2007 RB Phil Bardsley Manchester United 29 April 2007

Transferred out DatePosPlayerToFee 1 July 2006 RB Ulises de la Cruz Reading Free transfer 1 August 2006 CM Mathieu Berson Levante £500,000 22 August 2006 CF Kevin Phillips West Bromwich Albion £700,000 11 January 2007 LM Peter Whittingham Cardiff City £350,000 11 January 2007 RM Didier Agathe - Released 22 January 2007 CF Milan Baroš Olympique Lyon £5,000,000 17 April 2007 CF Juan Pablo Ángel New York Red Bulls Free transfer£6,550,000

Loaned out DatePosPlayerToLoan End 29 September 2006 RM Lee Hendrie Stoke City 1 January 2007 29 September 2006CF Sam Williams Brighton & Hove Albion 29 October 2006 20 October 2006 LB Stephen O'Halloran Wycombe Wanderers 21 January 2007 23 November 2006 AM Patrik Berger Stoke City 1 January 2007 12 January 2007 DM Eric Djemba-Djemba Burnley 31 May 2007 30 January 2007 RM Lee Hendrie Stoke City 31 May 2007 8 March 2007 GK Bobby Olejnik Lincoln City 29 April 2007

Overall transfer activity

Expenditure £22,150,000

Income £6,550,000

Balance £15,600,000

Pre-season DateOpponentsHome/AwayResultF–AScorersCompetition21 July 2006WalsallA5–0Agbonlahor (2), Moore (2), WhittinghamFriendly25 July 2006Hull CityA2–0 Davis, GardnerFriendly26 July 2006ChesterfieldA2–0Bridges (2)Friendly29 July 2006Wolverhampton WanderersA3–0Ridgewell, Barry, AgbonlahorFriendly5 August 2006Hannover A0–0Friendly8 August 2006NEC Nijmegen A1–2AgbonlahorFriendly11 August 2006Groningen A2–2Moore, RidgewellFriendly

Reserve & youth squad The following players spent most of the season playing for the reserve team, and did not appear for the first team.

Youth squad The following players spent most of the season playing for the youth team, and did not appear for the first team, but may have appeared for the reserve team.

Other players

References

Notes

External links Aston Villa official website avfchistory.co.uk 2006–07 season